COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (February 23, 2024) –
Joey Skarad (Stamford, Conn.) went 1-for-3 with a double and scored a run on Friday afternoon, but unfortunately, that accounted for the majority of the offense for the Sacred Heart University baseball team on the day. Meanwhile, home-standing Tennessee Tech struck for two in the first, one in the second and one in the third to pick up a 4-1 win in non-conference play at Bush Stadium.
It was trouble right out of the gate for SHU (0-4), as right-hander
Jake Babuschak (Jobstown, N.J.) took the mound and went walk, hit batsman, walk to open his outing in a bases-loaded, nobody-out situation. Nicho Jordan made the lack of control hurt, as he followed and knocked a two-run single back up the middle to open the scoring.
The good news for the Pios was that Babuschak recovered from there. He needed just 10 more pitches to record three outs, punctuating the inning with a strikeout to escape the jam without further damage. The senior found his command from there and issued just one more walk and hit one more batter the rest of his outing. He would get through 5.1 innings on 71 pitches (44 strikes), allowed four runs on five hits, walked three, hit two, struck out two and suffered the loss (0-2).
SHU got one of the runs back immediately, in the top of the second. With one out, Skarad stroked a double into right-center, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by
Michael Simonelli (Milford, Conn.). That would basically be it for the Sacred Heart offense on the afternoon though.
Tennessee Tech (4-1) added single insurance runs in both the second and third innings. In the second, Austin Turner knocked a two-out double to right-center and scored when Theo Bryant followed with an infield single. In the third, Hayden Gilliland opened the inning with his first home run of the season, to right field.
From there, the game basically went to sleep for the rest of the afternoon. Neither team had another hit until the seventh inning and just one runner would get as far as third base for the remainder of the game.
Right-hander Landon Smiddy (1-1) took the ball for TTU. He threw the first six innings on 92 pitches (56 strikes), allowed one run on two hits, walked one, hit a batter and struck out four to pick up the win. Right-hander Jack Erdman threw three innings of scoreless, two-hit ball, walked two and struck out two to finish things off and earn his second save of the season.
The two teams will continue the weekend series on Saturday at 3 p.m. (EST) at Bush Stadium.
